Conquest of the Forest. Rice Rituals of the To Pamona in Central Sulawesi (Indonesia)

Abstract: This dissertation examines some salient sequences of pre-Christian dry rice rituals in highland Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, particularly those of the To Pamona ethnic cluster which resides mainly in the present-day kecamatan of Pamona Utara and Pamona Selatan. The analysis focuses on certain crucial points in the progression of the developmental cycle of rice, namely the initial expiatory moandoe sala, the first ritual episodes conducted in the swidden fields, and the pre-planting, planting, and harvesting rituals. The corpus of data mainly consists of "missionary ethnography" from the period 1892 up to the 1920's provided by N. Adriani and A.C. Kruyt, notably their monograph De Bare'e Sprekende Toradjas van Midden-Celebes (1950-1951). Two complementary fertility models are discerned, referring to discontinuous procreation and to continuous regeneration, which prevail in the mundane world and in the Upper World respectively. From a panoramic point of view, the Pamonan rice cycle is regarded as a temporary re-enactment of the "primordial abundance" based on regeneration which once animated all living matter on earth. Major symbolic themes in this "manufacturing of fertility" include symbolic exchange, divination, silence versus speech, replacement language, ritual pragmatism, and prognoses or visionary quests.